High expectations OK with Richt

Click here or scroll down to watch video of Mark Richt's visit at the Savannah Golf Club.

To view Spotted photos from the event, click here.

You probably heard the woofing last night.

Around 7 p.m.? From the direction of the usually tranquil Savannah Golf Club?

Blame Georgia football coach Mark Richt for the noise. He pulled what cold warriors used to call a "preemptive strike" on the local Bulldog fans.

"Hopefully," Richt said, "we'll be just as excited at the end of the season as we are right now."

Cue the barking. Richt is embracing the national championship hopes aimed at his program. He opened his annual fried-chicken swing around the state right here in Savannah, and he began his remarks by calling the high expectations a "blessing."

The ploy worked. Richt took dozens of questions at the end of his speech, and not one made mention of the Bowl Championship Series title game or Ohio State, Oklahoma or Southern Cal. Or even the challenges the Bulldogs must overcome to reach the big one and face one of those other contenders.

"Those expectations are out there, so we might as well have fun with it," Richt said prior to the pseudo-pep rally. "I'm not going to try and bum anybody out."

No danger there. Richt made no attempt to temper enthusiasm Monday the way he did two months ago following the spring game. He answered the expectations question bluntly that afternoon, saying "anybody who feels like because we're Georgia we're going to win, they're out of their minds."

And that was before doctors found another fracture in fullback Brannan Southerland's foot and the usual summer misbehavior of some other players on the roster.

His tone differed, but so did the setting. His G-Day comments came in a press conference; his words Monday were directed to fans, who outnumbered media members at the meeting by about 200 to 1.

Even so, Richt seemed unusually upbeat about his team given the pitfalls ahead. He didn't go all Rick Dutrow on the fans, but the closest he came to downplaying championship dreams came when he said "there are at least six or seven teams that could line up toe for toe and possibly whip us."

That's probably an exaggeration. The number is closer to half that.

But a few of those teams are on Georgia's schedule. Yet as daunting as playing Arizona State, LSU, Florida and Auburn away from home will be, the schedule's degree of difficulty should help the Bulldogs.

They can lose one or two of those games and still be in line for a BCS title game berth. LSU proved it last season, and with Ohio State and USC playing what amounts to an elimination game against each other during the regular season, the SEC champion is all but a shoo-in.

And every Dawg in the room Monday knew it.

Still, Richt's woofing came as a surprise. He's been nothing if not cautious throughout his seven years in Athens. And that's the smart approach in a league where even the best teams can lose four games as easily as they can one or two.

But then late in his remarks came the underlying reason for his optimism: The preseason polls. He will talk up his team at every opportunity between now and the middle of August, anything to influence where his team starts the season.

"In years past, I've said it doesn't matter where you're ranked," Richt told the fans. "You do what you're supposed to do, you'll be there in the end. That's the case most seasons, but not every season, obviously."

He sold this voter. Then again, my Associated Press ballot was done in January - I will submit my final 2007 poll, which had Georgia at No. 1, as my preseason ballot this fall.